johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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One for the road
I don't expect anyone to read this one. I'm still awake only because my Internet might be turned off tomorrow. I decided to debrief about the 60 Minutes episode to clear my mind for Game Of Thrones. Have a great week, or couple of weeks if I go silent here.
There are now 4 Lance teammates from the glory years who said that they doped, that he doped, he gave them stuff and encouraged them to use it if they wanted to ride the Tour de France. The guys had a second, secret phone no one knew about that they used only for drug calls. They weren't associated with any names, in case the Feds were listening. They used code words, like Edgar Allen Poe for EPO. Tyler needed some once, so he called Lance, and in a day or two it was delivered.
Lance said he'd stopped working with Dr. Ferrari years ago when he was connected with doping, but Swiss officials know of numerous meetings in Monaco and Switzerland over the following years, and the team sent the Dr. large payments as recently as 2010.
The team's own doctors have been under investigation. They gave lessons to the riders in how to dope. The top riders on the team got special white lunch bags. They included EPO, and maybe growth hormone or whatever each guy needed. Hamilton agreed with Landis that Lance said he had a positive drug test in the 2001 Tour de Suisse. Lance told him that the UCI arranged for Lance & his boss/friend Bruyneel to meet with the head of the Swiss lab, who said that the UCI said they wanted the positive to go away. The lab head also gave them instruction in the dope testing process. Lance gave $25,000 to the UCI, followed by $100,000 later. The head of the Swiss lab has submitted a letter to the Federal investigation with the details. U.S. Anti-doping is investigating, and the head of WADA had some things to say about the situation.
Hamilton talked about EPO. He said there was a type of oil that comes in little red pills, or can be used as eye drops, for testosterone. Lance flew him in a private jet to Spain so he could have some of his blood removed to be used during the Tour de France. They all went to a hotel room during the Tour to get infused. Lance doped before the year he was a Tour de France champ, which means before he had cancer.
For the future:
They didn't even deal with the financial stuff. Lance is in big legal trouble. He had people defend him on twitter and in article comments, and his Demand Media people cranked out little articles. They wrote threats on Hamilton's Facebook page (I reported them for hate language and threats of violence). But he's had government agencies and law enforcement all over the world working on this. The French still have his samples that contain EPO, plus newer ones the Feds can test.
Johan Bruyneel, Team Radio Shack, and his staff over the years are in deep. Hopefully he'll lose his team license.
The present and former heads of the UCI recently filed a lawsuit against Landis because he accused them of cover ups. They'll wake up in a few hours to learm that agencies have been gathering evidence against them for just that.
We learned a bit of what George Hincapie testified to the grand jury, even though he hasn't said a word. He also hasn't denied it, which means that the world knows he cheated with Lance, and that he's only racing today because he got amnesty. Some people will still like him, but we know he's a cheater who wasn't punished.
Dr. Ferrari and his doping ring might finally go down, along with a number of current clients who think they're anonymous and safe. A number of them were kept from racing the Giro.
It's a big time. Doping agencies at all levels are sharing info with law enforcement and customs. Years from now, cycling fans will remember this weekend.
11:35 p.m. - Sunday, May. 22, 2011
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